Rukmini Devi Arundale

Rukmini Devi Arundale, born Rukmini Devi Sastri, was an Indian theosophist, dancer and choreographer who lived from 29 February 1904 to 24 February 1986, remembered as a pivotal revivalist of Bharatanatyam, the classical Indian dance form. In the early 1920s, when the dance was widely stigmatized due to its origins in the temple-dancing devadasi tradition, she learned and performed it publicly despite social resistance, helping restore it as a respected art form. She was the first woman nominated to India's Rajya Sabha, its upper parliamentary chamber, and received the Padma Bhushan in 1956 and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship in 1967.